The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence

Freud, Anna

doi:10.4324/9780429481550

Cited by 849 publications

(227 citation statements)

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“…Anna Freud's (1895–1982) theories are relevant to political violence almost inextricably, by virtue of the environment in which they were created, namely, blitzkrieg‐torn London in general and in particular the Hampstead War Nursery, which she established together with her life partner Dorothy Burlingham, and where children who were orphaned, internally displaced, or refugees received comprehensive mental and physical treatment. Apart from the general usefulness of her study of defense mechanisms (Freud, ), one of her most pertinent contributions to the understanding of political violence is based on her studies of how war trauma might trigger an “identification with the aggressor” defense mechanism, which compels the traumatized individual to externalize or “act out” their anxiety, loss, and distress in aggressive and violent means (Hirsch, ).…”

Section: The Neo‐classical Psychoanalytic Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Psychoanalytic Ego Psychology can be traced back to the neo‐Freudian recognition of the ego as a largely independent locus of emotional adaptation and impulse control and as an arbiter of self‐awareness and self‐evaluation (Freud, ; Fenichel, ; Hartmann, ; see also Victoroff, ). However, in specific regard to the etiology of violence, some of the most important advances were made by Heinz Kohut's (1913–1981) theory of narcissistic injuries and rage.…”

Section: The Psychoanalytic Ego Psychological Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The unconscious in terror: An overview of psychoanalytic contributions to the psychology of terrorism and violent radicalization

Cohen

2019

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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This overview provides a brief survey of the major psychoanalytic frameworks and concepts that were put forth throughout the years for understanding socio‐political violence and terrorism. In lieu of exhaustiveness, which is hindered by scope limitations, this overview maps the general ‘phylogenesis’, or the intellectual evolution and derivation of psychoanalytic theorizing about the subject, while putting more specific models within the context of the major developments (or splintering) in psychoanalytic theory that inspired or preceded them. Geared towards the English‐speaking reader, this overview attempts to undo some of the Americanocentric cultural bias that may still exist in the psychoanalytic literature in general and that of political violence in particular ‐ especially after 9/11. As such, it preferentially expounds upon theories that may be more popular outside the United States and/or have not yet been comprehensively translated to English, such as Marxist, post‐structuralist and ‘continental’ philosophical approaches to political violence. Further, since theories of political violence are arguably more prone to amnesia and to ‘reinvention of the wheel’ for a variety of reasons, this overview is slightly more detailed in describing early concepts and scholars that may still be useful in conceptualizing present‐day terrorism. The overview ends with a selective survey of innovative clinical and empirical approaches that allow for integration of psychoanalytic frameworks to flexibly understand political violence through cognitive products and primary sources.

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Section: The Neo‐classical Psychoanalytic Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Psychoanalytic Ego Psychological Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The unconscious in terror: An overview of psychoanalytic contributions to the psychology of terrorism and violent radicalization

Cohen

2019

Appl Psychoanal Studies

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“…Mick's conflict about his penis, his maleness and his hemophilia had pushed him to the idea of being a girl as a solution. I tended to see his seductive girlish behavior as a neurotic defense against anxiety (A. Freud, ) rather than a female identity seeking to come out. In analysis, he could retrace his steps and progress again along the developmental path.…”

Section: The Decision To Analyzementioning

confidence: 99%

Case study: Analysis of a traumatized hemophiliac boy

Scharff

2017

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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The author presents a case study of a hemophiliac boy in four-times-a-week analysis from the age of four to six and a half years. An extensive narrative of various phases of the analysis including the termination provides the reader access to the material for discussion of therapeutic action. Her analytic technique is based on a developmental point of view and illustrates the use of limits, play, and interpretation based on countertransference. She understands the boy's symptoms of preferring to be a girl, asking to cut his penis off, and wishing to die as defenses against the fear of castration, which in his case is aggravated by the actual threat of repeated medical interventions, and by the underlying fear of a lack of body composition. An unusual feature of the case is the illustration of the symptom, the analysis, and the recovery of the male self, captured in a complex collage that was made over the course of the relatively short analysis.Keywords: child analysis, hemophilia, cross-dressing, castration anxiety, body integrity anxiety, suicidality PresentationMick Martin 1 presented as an engaging, bright, attractive, muscular 4½ year-old boy with dark curly hair and olive-toned skin. He has moderately severe hemophilia, treated after injury by injection of clotting factor at home and intravenous plasma in the hospital for more serious blows. He has been getting hurt and threatening to kill himself. He was afraid of the dark and of monsters especially at night. He sneaked and hoarded food. He preferred to play with girls, stole, hoarded and excitedly but guiltily wore his sister's clothes, and for the last year, he had wished to change into a girl. Like his older brother (also hemophiliac) Mick was physically active in games, fearless, and oblivious to the risk of injury. Once injured, however, he was terrified of needles, and unlike his brother he resisted intravenous treatment. His hematologist referred Mick for analysis on account of his persistent wishes to cut off his penis, become a girl, and die. Psychosocial aspects of hemophiliaHemophilia, a disorder of blood clotting, passed to a male child through his mother's genes, causes bleeding, most often into the soft tissue and 1 To protect confidentiality for the analysand and his family, identifying details were changed. (2017) 98:71-90 Int J Psychoanal

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“…Defence mechanisms were primarily used to describe and interpret how the ego works to decrease the feeling of anxiety when the individual faces conflicts coming both from the external and internal world. In addition, they were a largely unconscious or automatic process (Vaillant, , ), including modes such as repression, denial, reaction formation, inhibition, intellectualization and so on (Freud, ). With the continued efforts of many researchers, a large variety of defence mechanisms were catalogued, reaching over 100 different types (Blackman, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resolving defence mechanisms: A perspective based on dissipative structure theory

Zhang

Ben-yu

2017

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

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Theories and classifications of defence mechanisms are not unified. This study addresses the psychological system as a dissipative structure which exchanges information with the external and internal world. When using defence mechanisms, the cognitive-affective schema of an individual could remain stable and ordered by excluding psychological entropy, obtaining psychological negentropy or by dissipating the energy of self-presentation. From this perspective, defences can be classified into three basic types: isolation, compensation and self-dissipation. However, not every kind of defence mechanisms can actually help the individual. Non-adaptive defences are just functioning as an effective strategy in the short run but can be a harmful approach in the long run, while adaptive defences could instead help the individual as a long-term mechanism. Thus, we would like to suggest that it is more useful for the individual to use more adaptive defence mechanisms and seek out social or interpersonal support when undergoing psychic difficulties. As this model of defences is theoretical at present, we therefore aim to support and enrich this viewpoint with empirical evidence.

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The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defence

Cited by 849 publications

References 0 publications

The unconscious in terror: An overview of psychoanalytic contributions to the psychology of terrorism and violent radicalization

The unconscious in terror: An overview of psychoanalytic contributions to the psychology of terrorism and violent radicalization

Case study: Analysis of a traumatized hemophiliac boy

Resolving defence mechanisms: A perspective based on dissipative structure theory

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